At meeting time today we decided to talk about what we were going to do about the beautiful castle the children made in the middle of the classroom. The children decided that since we took the table out of the Discovery Center that it would be the best place for the castle.

Mrs. Thall: How are we going to move the castle to the Discovery Center?

C.K.S.: Maybe we need to put a platform under it.

R.S.J.D.: Maybe we need to take it apart and rebuild it.

At this point, I decided it would be a good idea to take a vote to see what method the children agreed on.

Moving the castle on a platform seemed to be the best idea to most of the students so that’s what we went with. However, it didn’t pan out the way the children had planned! This is where giving the time and space to investigate their theories is so important.

Mrs. Shawana: What are we going to use for the platform?

S.C.: Maybe I can ask my mom to buy special wood that doesn’t bend.

C.K.S.: I have an idea. We can use a block at the Construction Center. It is strong.

S.C.: (Brought cylinders from the Construction Center and put a flat piece of wood on top to roll – he quickly figured out that it would not work) He says “maybe not”!

E.R.S.: I have a big, strong, flat thing at home.

M.A.: We could buy something long.

E.D.: There is no way we can move this. The rocks are too close to the ground. (realizing that we can’t slide anything under the castle)

At this point, M.A. wants to cross out the “platform” option on the tally chart but is not happy about the option of rebuilding it. He is convinced the “platform” option is NOT working but is definitely not interested in rebuilding it.

M.G. goes and grabs the story telling stool and says we should put the castle on there.

E.R.S.: I think we need a round platform.

E.D.: I think we need to build it all over again.

After the children had exhausted their ideas about a platform and after so many trial and errors they decided amongst each other that it would be best to carry pieces of the castle over to the Discovery Center carpet and rebuild it there.

A.B. struggles with carrying all the acorns so she decided to fill up her shirt!

In the meantime, E.D. has found some little bugs on the carpet and thinks that they are coming from the acorns. One little girl was convinced they were “magnets”(maggots)!!!!!

After this discovery, Mrs. Shawana decided to Google “bugs in acorns” and learned that the “worm like” looking bugs were in fact called “grubs”.

Having a closer look at the grubs!

The Internet also taught us that if you drop an acorn in water and it sinks, it means that the acorn has grubs living inside. If the acorn floats to the top, it means that grub has left the acorn.

Mrs. Shawana: We are going to do an experiment. What is an experiment?

C.K.S.: An experiment is something that you learn everyday.

S.C.: An experiment is something you make with volcanoes and it explodes.

Mrs. Shawana chose some acorns to test the theory. Sure enough, the acorns with holes floated to the top and the acorns without holes stayed on the bottom.

An acorn without holes.

An acorn with holes – floats to the top.

We are just as excited as the children! We are all learning together. Tomorrow the children with have the opportunity to conduct their own experiments, sketch their observations as well as crack some acorns with nut crackers to take a closer look inside. One little boy left us thinking that the acorn must be the grubs habitat!